The machine of the invention is of the same general type as described in Copending application Ser. No. 523,115, filed Aug. 1, 1983 and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,046, and in Copending application Ser. No. 301,740, filed Sept. 14, 1981, both of which are assigned to the present Assignee. The telephone answering machine described in the Copending Applications is one which includes a first magnetic tape cassette (T-1) on which an announcement is recorded, and which is activated during an announcement interval (T.sub.1) in response to a telephone call, causing the recorded announcement to be transmitted over the telephone line to the calling party during that interval. The machine also includes a second magnetic tape cassette (T-2) on which incoming messages are recorded. At the end of the announcement interval (T.sub.1) the message tape (T-2) is activated, so that the message transmitted over the telephone line by the calling party during a following time interval (T.sub.2) may be recorded.
The remote control of the telephone answering machine described in the Copending Applications, and of the telephone answering machine of the present invention, may be achieved by means of a small portable transmitter unit which is held up by the callng party to the mouthpiece of a telephone, and which is pushbutton controlled to transmit remote control tone signals over the telephone line. The telephone answering machine of the present invention, like the system described in Copending application Ser. No. 301,740, is designed to respond to a particular coded control tone signal to activate a remote control circuit, so that the message tape cassette may be rewound and then set to a playback condition in order that the messages recorded on the message tape may be successively transmitted over the telephone line to the calling party.
In the system of the present invention, a coded remote control signal is sent to the telephone answering machine by the calling party over the telephone line after the (T.sub.1) announcement interval has been completed. When the coded remote control signal is received by the machine, it is decoded and fed to a microcomputer which is included in the machine and which controls its operation.